Lexington Medical, a US-based medical device company delivering minimally-invasive surgical stapling solutions, and BOWA Medical, a leading innovator of energy based surgery products for medical applications, have entered into a commercial agreement.

One-year outcomes from a study evaluating the RefluxStop device (Implantica) has found the device is safe and effective when treating gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), with no complications related to the device and complications caused by the compression of the food passageway (ie. dysphagia, odynophagia and gas bloating) are not an issue with the RefluxStop procedure. The outcomes were reported in the paper, ‘Non-active implantable device treating acid reflux with a new dynamic treatment approach: 1-year results’, published in BMC Surgery.

The two-year outcomes from the Tehran obesity treatment study (TOTS), which is comparing the effectiveness and safety of sleeve gastrectomy (SG) and gastric bypass (GB), has reported that both surgical procedures are effective in the control of obesity and remission of its comorbidities. However, since SG was associated with a lower rate of complications, it seems that SG should be considered as a suitable procedure for obese patients, especially those with a healthier metabolic profile, the authors report.

A review article in Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology describes the refinement of EsophyX technology (EndoGastric Solutions) and the evolution of transoral incisionless fundoplication (TIF) as a safe and effective treatment for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Apollo Endosurgery has submitted a 510k submission of the X-Tack Endoscopic HeliX Tacking System to the FDA seeking clearance for the new, through-the-scope, suture-based device designed specifically for closing defects in the lower gastrointestinal tract with additional applications in the upper gastrointestinal tract.

Olympus has launched the EVIS X1 endoscopy system to improve outcomes from disorders of the stomach, colon and oesophagus, as well as from bronchial diseases. EVIS X1 supports accurate screening and confident diagnosis through introducing new and easy-to-use technologies to support how gastrointestinal disorders, such as colorectal cancer (CRC), or bronchial diseases are detected, characterised and treated.

The risk of greater COVID-19 severity and death is higher in people with BMI>30 according to a study published in the European Journal of Endocrinology. The study findings showed that BMI>30 was associated with a significantly higher risk of respiratory failure, admission to intensive care and death in COVID-19 patients, regardless of age, gender and other associated diseases.

A new Northwestern Medicine remote weight-loss programme, called Opt-IN, provides maximum weight loss for the lowest cost and with much less hassle than the gold-standard National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), according to the outcomes from a clinical trial. The DPP is claimed to be the most successful behavioural non-drug treatment currently available. Outcomes from the Opt-IN programme show that participants in a clinical trial lose 11 to 13lbs, which is equivalent to the DPP's success rate.

Users of public insurance are paying more for bariatric surgery compared to private insurance patients, according to researchers the University of Georgia.

Prior bariatric surgery (prior-BS) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients undergoing noncardiac surgery is associated with a lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs), according to researchers from The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou and the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.

IFSO Endoscopy Committee has published a Position Statement on the best practise of bariatric endoscopy in response to the CVOID-19 pandemic. The statement offers guidance on navigating bariatric endoscopic procedures in patients with obesity during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the hope of mitigating the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to vulnerable patients and healthcare workers. The statement acknowledges that the recommendations may evolve as the pandemic progresses.

African American (AA) patients undergoing bariatric surgery are younger and heavier than non-AA patients, present with different comorbidity profiles and exhibit worse outcomes following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) or sleeve gastrectomy (SG) than non-AA patients, including increased mortality rates in AA-SG patients.

Breast cancer patients who are overweight or have obesity might benefit less from treatment with docetaxel, a common chemotherapy drug, than lean patients, according to an international team of researchers who carried out a retrospective analysis of data from a large clinical trial.

A team of Australian paediatric specialists, including an expert from the University of Adelaide, has produced new guidelines regarding assessment and management of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Australian and New Zealand children and adolescents. With the incidence of T2D on the rise among children and adolescents, especially in Indigenous communities, early assessment and management is critical.

A new guideline from the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, based on a rigorous systematic review of the latest evidence, found no benefit of routine screening for oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and precursor conditions (Barrett oesophagus and dysplasia) in patients with chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

People among black and minority ethnic communities (BME) who have obesity are around two times higher the risk of contracting COVID-19 compared to white Europeans, according to a study conducted by a team of Leicester researchers.

Researchers at Yale have identified a molecule that plays a key role in the body's inflammatory response to overeating, which can lead to obesity, diabetes and other metabolic diseases. The finding suggests that the molecule could be a promising therapeutic target to control this inflammation and keep metabolic diseases in check. The study, ‘OGT suppresses S6K1-mediated macrophage inflammation and metabolic disturbance’, was publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers from Osaka University, Japan, have developed a novel vaccine that removes aged immune cells and then demonstrated an improvement of diabetes-associated metabolic derangements by vaccinating mice with obesity. The study, 'The CD153 vaccine is a senotherapeutic option for preventing the accumulation of senescent T cells in mice', was published in Nature Communications.

Researchers from Obesity Center Máxima, Máxima Medical Center, Department of Surgery, Eindhoven/Veldhoven, in the Netherlands, have initiated the ‘Banded Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in patients with superobesity (BRandY-study)’ to assess the added value of the banded Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in patients with super-obesity (BMI>50) on long-term weight loss outcomes.

One of the first studies to define and examine the perceptions ‘bariatric families’ towards obesity has reported that there are significant differences between the perceptions of those parents and children – in a ‘bariatric family’ - toward themselves, their health and the preferred mode of obesity treatment, compared to non-bariatric families, according to researchers from Dana Dwek Children’s Hospital and Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.